Dark Huntress
by Desaire
Summary: Luce is a huntress, once part of an elite combat force that hunted the evil vampire. One night during the hunt all goes to Hell. Lukais Korvyn, Carpathian male, is her only chance to find life from her world of death...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

**THE CANADIAN ROCKIES**

THE RANCID SMELL of the beast, the huntress had tracked down, permeated the night air. She gagged but quickly regained her stealthy composure. Luce hid in the shadows of the trees within the forest. Her team, several feet behind her, waited for her signal. Static crackled over the airwaves of the radio.

"It's all clear from my line of sight. I'm going in further. I want you men to hold back till I have a confirmed sighting. Understood?" Random _ok's_ echoed in her earpiece. "If anything goes wrong, you guys are to fall back and get the hell out of dodge. No heroics. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yah, yah, we hear you. Just don't go and get yourself killed, got it?"

"I hear you loud and clear, Jacob." In a crouched position, Luce made her way forward.

The moon was hidden behind dark ominous clouds but she knew that it was the vampire using his powers to shield its light. The darkness made no difference to her; it was her ally as well. Slowly rising to stand up with her back flat to a tree, she switched the Browning Hi-Power 9mm to her left hand and with her right pulled out an antique short sword from a sheath at her waist.

Luce pushed aside a naked tree limb from her line of vision. There, in the clearing, stood the vampire with his back to her. His misshapen head faced skyward. With a subtle mental push she was able to know that he was already aware of her and her team's presence, their exact locations. Cursing under her breath, she spoke into her radio.

Fearful for her teammates, she yelled the warning. "Fall back immediately! He knows we're here! Get the hell out of here! NOW!"

The vampire slowly turned to her, a devilish grin on his face revealing hideous decaying, black blood-stained fangs. "Well, well. You surprise me, my dear. I would not have thought that you were going to be able to track me, but I guess I underestimated you. I'd like to thank you for bringing dinner along with you. Your human friends will make quite a feast for my comrades. You though are mine." With lightning speed he was suddenly beside her, grasping both her wrists tightly.

Shrieks could be heard in the distance, men crying out in pain and terror.

The vampire's breath was hot on the skin of her neck, its horrid stench making her dizzy and sick. Even with the breaking force holding her wrists she kept a firm grip on her weapons. Twisting the handle of the lethal blade around in her hand, she slashed it down into his forearm. The poisoned tip broke through and through. The vampire roared in anger and threw her hard into the tree where she crumpled to the ground.

"You bitch, what the hell did you dip that blade in!" He yanked out the dagger and stabbed it into the trunk of the tree only an inch from her head. He swayed slightly and blinked as he tried to clear his vision. "You will pay for what you have done." He leaned forward to her exposed throat, his fangs sinking deep.

Searing-hot pain laced through her body. She screamed at the same time she lifted her left hand and placed the barrel of the gun under his chin. The sound of the gun firing was deafening at the close range, her ears rang. The vampire fell back, the front half of his head missing.

Luce got shakily to her feet and stood over the vampire and emptied the magazine into his heart. Bending back down to retrieve her knife, she hacked away at his neck, decapitating him. On the ground near the tree was her backpack that held the lighter fluid and matches. She made quick process of setting the corpse to flames.

Applying a gauze pad and bandage to the gaping wound on her neck, Luce collected her things and ran through the forest. Where the vampire's blood touched her skin it scolded as if fire was licking just underneath; like a thousand tiny knives were digging into her flesh and tearing her from the inside out.

She tried to contact her men on the radio, hoping that some of them were able to escape. None ever reported back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**THAT SAME NIGHT**

BLOOD AND DEATH along with the putrid vapor that a vampire emits are the usual signs that the creature had been in the area. And judging by the number of decaying bodies of humans, Lukais Korvyn knew he had only missed them by an hour at the most.

The Carpathian male and his brother, Trevok, had been hunting a small band of vampires for the past three months. Where the chase had started in Seattle, Washington, the brothers knew that it would end here in Canada. The vampires were few now, down to probably five, tops.

"So, what do you think, Lukais? These humans all carry weapons, radios, and are dressed in camouflage; hunters by the looks of them. And look here. They all have crosses and some even have marked canteens of holy water. It's a dead give-away. No pun intended."

"It may be possible that they were attempting to hunt the vampires, stupid, but possible. It cost them their lives. A damn waste if you ask me." Lukais turned over one of the deceased bodies. "This one was just a boy, no more than his early twenties." He shook his head in disgust. "We have to catch them; this has gone on long enough."

"We will get them, brother. Do not let this tragedy affect you."

"How the hell can it affect me? I do not have any emotions or feelings. I see no color. It is you who should be worrying about yourself. You have found your lifemate. You..."

"_You_ need to calm down. I swear, sometimes I believe that you still retain some emotions. You bitch all the damn time. Now come on, let's scout out the area more. The air smells of burnt flesh."

Lukais scented the air. "It comes from over near that clearing." He stood up and went to his left, Trevok following close at his side. "Tell me, how is Bethany these days? Believe it or not, but I find some peace in hearing you speak so fondly of her."

Trevok smiled at his brother, his gray eye's flashed with mirth.

"She is well. In fact, we have some wonderful news. I just found out before we left the house tonight, but Bethany is with child. I wanted you to be the first to know."

Lukais stopped and looked at his brother. "I am... I believe, happy for you. Bethany must be overjoyed. You will make a fine father, Trevok."

"Thank you. And do not worry. I know you have a lifemate out there waiting for you to find her. It is only a matter of time." Trevok placed a hand on Lukais' shoulder.

"Unfortunately, brother, time is something I do not have much of." Lukais sighed. "The darkness inside me grows stronger with each passing day. It is becoming harder to fight it. If I do not find my lifemate very soon, I will have no choice but to face the dawn. I will not disgrace our race by turning vampire. I promise you this."

Trevok gave a gentle shove on Lukais' shoulder.

"Stop sounding so dramatic. You will find her. Have no doubts or it will burden you and feed the darkness."

The Carpathians entered the clearing; to their right was a pile of smoking ash. They examined the mound closely.

"This was most definitely vampire. What is that, gasoline? Could a human of destroyed this one?" Trevok looked the ground over and found a spent matchstick and a small plastic bottle. Picking it up he smelled what was once the contents of gasoline.

"Trevok, over here!"

Trevok walked over to where Lukais was knelt by a tree. "What is it, what have you found, Lukais?" He hunkered down beside his brother.

"Human blood. Female. Look at these prints in the dirt; they're all over the place. Could it be that some human woman killed the vampire? She was wounded in the process, though. His blood is here as well." His midnight blue eyes closed as he tried to imagine what sort of woman would have taken on the damned creature all on her own. "This is odd. There is some foreign substance in this one's blood, a poison or something along the lines. And the blade to this knife has disintegrated. This weapon, which I assume must have been dipped in the deadly chemical, was used on the vampire. Whoever she was, she killed the vampire, incinerated him, and ran off deeper into the mountains."

"Damn, Lukais, you're good."

"All the evidence was here, you would have spotted it too."

"Yes, but not as fast as you usually do. Come on, we need to hurry. We still have to dispose of the human bodies and destroy all traces of the vampire's tainted blood. And the woman was injured; if it were by the vampire then she could have been bitten. We can not have her running around out there with that kind of wound."

Twenty minutes later the brothers had purified the grounds and were tracking the scent of the injured woman. The remaining vampires, it seemed, must have found their fallen comrade and went after the woman.

━━━ **死 ━━━**

Weary from the encounter with the vampires, the loss of her friends, and the stinging wound at her throat, Luce found it hard to continue running. Her pace had slowed down to a sluggish walk. Her breathing was labored and shallow.

"Damn those bastards. I'll see every one of them dead. Permanently." Her words were slurring and her vision blurred. "Shit." She knew that it was impossible to go on any longer. Her body was worn out and her neck was throbbing.

The vampire's bite was the worst of it all. Memories of her childhood flashed to the forefront of her mind. Luce knew what happened to those who were bitten; she knew that there was nothing to stop the inevitable. She'd sooner put a bullet in her own head than face that outcome, just like she had to do with her own family.

Tears burned her eyes. She fell to her knees in exhaustion and sorrow. "No. Not me. Those damned creatures won't get me as well. I'll kill them all before I give up."

She pushed to her feet again only to be forced back down, her face hitting the cold dirt and soggy dead leaves. A heavy weight was on top of her, pinning her down.

Maniacal laughter echoed from several spots around her. She was surrounded and in serious trouble.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ **死 ━━**━**━**━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

**A/N: **_I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry it took so long to update. I will try my absolute best to keep up with this story. I have so many wonderful ideas that I wish to try out. Please R & R!_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

LUKAIS AND TREVOK took to the sky, traveling quickly at a blurring speed. Even from up in the air they could still follow the woman's scent. Although arriving late to the scene of death and destruction, she had not run far.

The vampires' presence was close, the small band now down to four.

"Four vampires against two Carpathians seems like such unfair odds, do you not think so, Lukais? I mean, they will have to realize that there is no escaping us this time. It will be a quick battle."

"Do not sound so pleased, Trevok. They are after the woman, and she is wound and slow moving. Our timing is terrible. By now they should already be upon her. We took too long cleaning up that mess back there. She could already be dead by now."

"She killed one of their own. They will want her to suffer by prolonging her death. They will most likely violate her, each in turn, share feeding off of her, and then kill her. Who knows, they may even try to turn her so they can watch her kill herself."

Lukais looked to his brother. "It is not right that you speak of her torture so casually. She is a human that hunts the vampire; she must have a good reason to do what she does. Instead of thinking what they will do to her, think of a plan on how to save her. If she was bitten, she will need to be purified and healed."

"You are right, Lukais, again as usual. Typical Lukais, always the better of us both; even though I am the elder." Trevok said sarcastically.

"Only by a few minutes, dear brother. And do not talk nonsense. You have always been the better. And it seems that we will have to discuss this at a later time. Look over there, our quarry has found the woman. Damn it! It is like you said. They wish for her to suffer."

"Bloody hell, I hate it when I'm right." He continued to curse under his breath as they descended.

...xXx...

"Did you miss us, sweetness?" The vampire's voice hissed in her ear. His tongue slid down the nape of her neck, leaving a painful burning sensation behind. "You killed our master, which is quite impressive but very unacceptable, dearie."

Luce struggled underneath him but to no avail. He was too heavy in her weakened state. "If it were up to me, I would have gladly killed all of you."

The vampire sat up just enough to turn her over on her back then pressed his weight back down. He pinned her arms above her head with one hand as his other tore off the bandages on her neck, re-tearing the flesh that had begun to heal. He leaned forward and lapped the open wound.

In a futile attempt again at struggling she only managed to rub her hips against his. In response to her movements she felt him grow hard, his full erection pushing tightly at her lower belly.

He made a sound like that of a growl and a moan mixed as one. "Yes, that's it. Since you killed our last master that put me as runner up. I should thank you. Perhaps I will make you my lifemate. You do posses an extraordinary amount of psychic abilities, which could be the key to my redemption."

He ground his hips harder against her, enough to make her gasp and cry out in the pain and humiliation of it all. Her wordless cry only enticed him more. With his free hand he made quick work on ripping off her shirt and groping her breasts through her bra.

Luce knew that she would not be able to stop him physically, so she fought back the only other way she could. Using her mind, she built up her mental energy to slash out.

In the past, she had been able to use her psychic powers to disable the very vampire that killed her family. And she was only seven at the time. Now at twenty-four, she had perfected her skills. She learnt to use her mind as a very deadly weapon to those not expecting the attack.

As the vampire continued his physical assault on her body, she blocked it all out and focused her mind for her own attack. She snuck into the vampire's body, straight to his cerebellum where she threw a good dosage of power into snapping the muscle and tissue.

The vampire's body immediately went limp and fell heavily onto her, nearly crushing her chest and knocking the air out of her momentarily. Though to a vampire it was not a killing blow, she regained her power for a second attack. This time she went to his heart where she made an invisible vise grasp the blackened organ and crush it.

The vampire let out a strangled cry as she now physically pushed him off of her. Her victory over her assailant was short-lived as she noticed the other three vampires closing in on her.

The vampire to her left yelled his anger. "You bitch! What have you done? Playtime is over, now you will die..."

Before the vampire could finish his sentence a fist burst through his chest and back out again, leaving a gaping hole in its stead. The sky lit up and lightening danced from cloud to cloud. A ball of fire fell from the raging night sky and crashed into the heartless vampire.

From behind the flames of the burning vampire stood a man who tossed the dead heart into the fire, who then dissolved into the air. To her right she heard a bellowing roar. She turned her head just in time to see another vampire suffer the same fate as his brethren.

Luce didn't wait a second longer. Pushing to her feet she tied the torn ends of her shirt together in a knot and bolted as fast as she could into the forest.

...xXx...

Lukais was just killing the second vampire when he saw the woman disappear into the darkness of the woods. Trevok was finishing off his kill as well and was moving to the fourth one that was lying on the ground where he fell attempting to rape the woman.

Trevok knelt down by the still vampire. "Look at this one, Lukais. Not a scratch on him yet he is disabled. But give him some time and he may be able to heal himself. Let us not wait for then." Raising his arms to the sky he directed another fireball to destroy the last of the vampires.

"Lukais, are you alright?" Trevok turned to his brother who stood very still staring at his hands, then at the burning fires, then at the sky and back to his hands again, to finally rest his eyes on the forest. "Lukais?"

"Trevok, I... Color. I can see color. That woman, I did not even notice until a second ago when I finished off the vampire. This... Is this real?"

Trevok walked up to his brother, picking up the woman's discarded backpack and gun on the way, and grasped his shoulders. "Tell me, Lukais, what color shirt am I wearing?" He could not help but smile.

Lukais' gaze slipped to his brother's shirt. "Green, a solid dark green one." He looked back into Trevok's face. "Like your eyes. Trevok, I am seeing in color."

"Yes you are, Lukais. That can only mean one thing."

Lukais turned to look back at the forest where the woman had fled into. "She... She is my lifemate?"

"Well, duh! Obviously. And your lifemate is wounded. We must go after her and help her before she gets into any more trouble." Trevok's smile widened at his brother; Lukais looked so confused and childlike, as though he couldn't believe at what was happening to him.

At the thought of his lifemate hurt and in any more danger, Lukais quickly snapped out of his reverie, and charged into the forest. Trevok followed close behind.

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**A/N:** _If you liked this chapter than I believe that you will enjoy the next one. Please stay with me. I'm trying to update my stories at least once a week or so. But I have four different stories I am working on, not to mention two REAL novels that I am hoping to one day have actually published. So, as you can imagine, I am quite busy in the writing department. It's hard to keep up and come up with ideas for all the different plots. Trying to keep in mind all the many characters. Thanks for reading and please review._ - 


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **_I'm so sorry that it has taken me this long to update. Forgive me. I've had writers block and have been suffering from migraines, and I also have not been able to get computer access. Again, I'm sorry and will try to remember to update. Since I am busy with real life problems, I may only be able to get a chapter out every two weeks. So please bear with me, this story gets better I promise. Thnx._

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**Chapter Four**

WHY SHE WAS running Luce didn't understand. Those two men had saved her, but they couldn't have been human; they moved too fast that she had trouble following their movements. And not to mention the whole lightening and fireball episode.

Luce had once seen a vampire control the weather to create such things as those balls of fire, but those two men just did not look like the hideous creatures she knew so well.

Somewhere deep within her mind was the answer, she knew it, but she just couldn't grasp it. They were not human, but not vampire.

"Damn, why can't I remember? What the hell are they?"

She ran until her legs finally gave out on her and collapsed. Falling down, she crawled into a large decaying hole of an old tree. It stank of wet rotted wood, but it was shelter and she wouldn't complain.

Closing her eyes for a few minutes, Luce tried to control her breathing. Her wound was becoming unbearable now, the pain severe and unrelenting. If she didn't get to a hospital she might bleed out to death, or worse, turn into the very thing she hated so much.

"Geez, talk about a real crappy night. I'm even talking to myself now. I must be in shock or on the boundaries of insanity. While I'm at it, great job, Luce on getting your team murdered. You sure showed those vamps." A sob escaped with her sigh. "At least the damn bastards are all dead; permanently."

Having told herself that crying never got her anywhere, just puffy eyed and drained, she swallowed down the guilt and blinked away the unshed tears.

Curling up into fetal position, Luce closed her eyes against the wave of nausea. Noticing that her pants were undone, she couldn't hold back another small whimper as she buttoned and zipped them.

Rocking herself slowly, exhaustion hit her full force. She succumbed to sleep, hoping that when... if she woke up, that she would still be herself; still human.

━━━ **死 ━━━**

It wasn't hard at all to find her. Lukais bent down and peered into the hole of the tree to see her asleep. She looked so vulnerable and helpless. He hated himself for not being able to save her from the night's terrible events by finding her sooner in life.

"How is she, Lukais?" Trevok whispered.

"Sleeping; probably passed out from this whole ordeal. We need to get her home and taken care of." As he moved to scoop her up in his arms, her eyes shot open.

"No!" Luce yelled as she kicked further back into the concealing darkness of the hole. "Stay away from me."

Feeling hurt by her rejection from only wanting to help her, Lukais sat down at the hole's entry. "Now is that any way to treat us for saving your life?" He looked to Trevok. "You would think she would be grateful."

Confused as to what to do now, Luce sat hunched over, not moving, her arms wrapped around her legs and her chin resting on her knees.

"We will not hurt you, little one. Why would we when we went through all that trouble just to save you?" He said the words although it had been no trouble at all. The vampires were young and inexperienced. A Carpathian child could have destroyed them. But still, he spoke in a comforting, soft tone to help ease her frightened state.

"You could have gotten rid of them so _you _could mess with me." As she said it, it sounded ridiculous even to her. She sighed. "Thank you for helping me, but I'd much rather just take care of and be by myself. You understand. Just please go on your way and leave me alone."

Lukais didn't budge. "I'm afraid I could never leave you, especially in your condition. Let me help you. That open bite wound will not heal itself with you sitting in here not doing anything about it. Please, come out."

He added a light command to his last two words, and she felt it. Luce glared at him, anger overriding her earlier fear. "Don't ever do that again!"

He blinked innocently and turned his head. "Do not do _what_?"

"That mental push you just did; the silent, hidden order in your voice. I'm not some amateur who can't notice a subtle mind control."

"I was not trying to control you, never that."

"What then? You were hoping that I would comply and come out? No way, not now. Even then, not after what I saw you guys accomplish back there. A human can't direct the kind of fireworks you showed off."

Lukais sighed and again looked to Trevok for help. "Tell me what to do, brother. I am stumped. Never have I encountered this sort of situation."

Trevok laughed and sat down several feet away from Lukais and his lifemate. "You are on your own, Lukais. If you can not convince her that we only wish to help her, then you will have to go with strategy B."

"And what, might I ask is _strategy b_?" Luce interrupted.

Trevok peered around the hole to look inside at her, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Simple. Wait until you pass out from blood loss and go in there and get you. Although if we wait any longer you could very well die from loss of blood, and that I just can not allow; because not only would your death be a terrible loss, but you would be killing my brother in the process. I do not wish to lose him when we have finally found the only way for him to live."

"Huh, and that would be... what?"

"You, of course. Oh, and I believe that this bag is yours. I found it, as well as the gun, which I put inside." Trevok tossed the backpack to Lukais. "If you come out you can have it back."

"Well, yah sure, cause that's incentive enough."

"Great." Lukais perked up.

"Lukais, she was being sarcastic." Trevok shook his head. "You must excuse my brother. Being so long without emotion must have short-circuited his brain along with his intelligence."

Luce stifled a laugh with a muffled cough. "And why would he be without emotion? Is he that big of a hothead?"

"Hothead?" Lukais looked back and forth between his brother and lifemate. "I am right here you know."

Trevok dismissed his brother with a wave of his hand. "It is possible. But do give him some credit; he is having quite a night himself. It's not everyday that one such as us finds his lifemate. Lukais is undergoing..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just wait right there. Lifemate? That's the second time I've heard that tonight. The first time was that ass of a vamp getting all hungry and horny on me. He said that I was going to be his redemption, his lifemate. Now explain why you say this now? And make it quick, I'm feeling sick again and light-headed."

Lukais inched hesitantly into the hole, he did not want to frighten her further but he couldn't just sit there while she faded away. "I will explain everything but you must allow me help you. I will not let you die."

"Sounds like another command, but no extra push this time." She mentally gave him a brownie point for the effort. She sighed and shook her head in resignation, causing her to sway.

Lukais threw out a hand to steady her. "Please, let me help you." His heart was sore seeing her like this. The new emotions he felt were becoming bothersome. If he didn't care so much that he would anger her by forcing her to go back to his home with him, he would already have done it by now. And he did not want her angry. He knew that he was going to have enough problems ahead when he tried to explain who and what he was to her.

"Alright, I give up. This is pointless anyways. If I don't go, I'll die. But if I do go, it can't be worse than death." She stumbled just trying to get to he hands and knees; a bad sign that she was far gone. If they were going to hurt her, they could have easily of done so by now instead of chatting. She had no strength to defend herself at this point.

Lukais handed her backpack to Trevok. He leaned over her and pulled her into his arms, cradling her against his chest. "Do not be afraid, I swear we will not harm you in any way. I just want you safe and well."

"Can't argue with that." Luce smiled and rested her head against his shoulder. "Are you going to take me to a hospital?"

"No, my brother and I will be able to heal you much faster and more efficiently than any human doctor can." He spoke softly as he walked.

"Human doctor? Interesting choice of words. Can you make yourself stand out anymore?" Her words were beginning to slur together. Her eyelids were heavy and now near impossible to keep open. Not wanting to fall asleep, she forced herself to stay awake and keep talking. "So what are you anyways? Your not vampire; I've been around them long enough to see a major difference. You moved so fast back there and the fire and lightning; it was all almost familiar in a weird way. I can't place my finger on it. I feel as though I know what you are, but I just can't remember for the life of me. Why is that?"

Lukais looked back at Trevok who only shrugged. "Give me some time and you will have the answers. I need to get you home very quickly. You seem to understand enough to know we're not human, so if I were to… say… jump into the air and fly us to my house, would that scare you?"

Luce laughed despite herself. "There is nothing you couldn't possibly do that would make me lose my mind right now. As it is, I think I'm already crazy. Go ahead and do your tricks, I'll just close my eyes and hope I pass out and stay unconscious till this nightmare is over."

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End file.
